It is well recognized that the pleasurable sensation associated with the odor of flowers and the taste and odor of foods is associated with a complex mixture of hydrophilic and lipophilic odoriferous and flavor producing compounds which affect the olfactory and taste nerves. The mixture comprises only an extremely small proportion by weight of the total.
The mixture normally contains a variety of organic compounds such as acids, aldehydes and ketones, many of which are extremely labile and subject to decomposition when exposed to harsh chemical or physical treatment. Additionally, many of them are extremely volatile so that they readily escape to the atmosphere when exposed to high temperatures.
In a sense, the remaining portion of the food or flower may be considered to be merely a carrier for the odoriferous and flavor producing components. It would be useful to be able to separate these components from their natural carrier so that they could be utilized for other purposes. For example, it would be useful to isolate them from beef in order to enhance the flavor of less expensive proteins such as soy meal, thus making this valuable protein source more palatable for mammals. Similarly, it would be useful to extract the flavor and aroma constituents from spices, rather than to utilize them in their presently available form which in many cases is the dried and powdered plant, leaf, fruit or flower. Additionally, new perfumes and other cosmetics can be prepared by blending the aroma constituents obtained from more than one flower.
An important utility for the flavor and aroma constituents of coffee beans or tea leaves is to enhance the attractiveness of commercially available coffee and tea. The commercial preparation of these products is often associated with the loss or destruction of the desirable aroma and flavor producing ingredients of the natural product.
For these and other reasons, considerable effort has been expended in attempts to isolate the complex mixture which may be regarded as the essence of various foods and flowers. The methods which have been devised have included, for example, squeezing, decoction, steam distillation, extraction with liquid organic solvents or with semi-solids such as tallow or lard. None of these procedures have been completely satisfactory for a variety of reasons. Steam distillation, for example, causes decomposition of the more labile constituents of the mixture due to exposure to air at high temperatures. The use of tallow or lard is too complicated, too expensive and, as a practical matter, is essentially limited to extraction of rose petals. Liquid organic solvents tend to be too oleophilic so that they extract principally the oil soluble materials, or too hydrophilic so that they extract principally the water soluble ingredients. This is unsatisfactory because the total sensation associated with a particular food or flower is a result of the individual contributions of both hydrophilic and lipophilic constituents.
As used herein, the term food or food substance refers to any substance which is normally ingested orally, whether in solid or liquid form, whether as a source of nutrition, or merely satisfaction and pleasure. It includes, for example, solid foods such as mushrooms; fish products such as shrimps, crabs and bonito; meat products such as beef, lamb, pork, and chicken; spices such as cinnamon, clove, ginger and pepper; and drinks such as coffee, tea or cocoa. In the last mentioned cases, the term includes the concentrates from which the product actually ingested is produced, for example, instant coffee or tea.